Superstars 2012 was a cheap and cheerful cash-in of Olympic heroics

Denise Lewis, Gabby Logan and Iwan Thomas helped bring Superstars back to the screen with a Team GB edition (PIcture: BBC)

Know this, people. In a matter of days it will be 2013 – and the year in which the Olympics descended on London in spectacular fashion will be forever consigned to history. Sad but true, but as of next week the party really is over.

But before we finally wave goodbye to 2012, we were offered one last hurrah in the form of Superstars 2012 (BBC One), which aimed to cash in on both the dying embers of Olympics fever, and that long-defunct 70s teatime telly favourite with a special one-off ‘Team GB’ edition.

What this meant was that 16 of our heroic medal-winners – with Mo Farah, Anthony Joshua and the Brownlee Brothers among the boys, and Nicola Adams, Gemma Gibbons, Lizzie Armitstead and Christine Ohuruogu doing it for the girls – proved that just because you’re world champion of one sport doesn’t mean that you’re automatically fantastic at all sports.

Over the course of 90 minutes there were many moments of our intrepid 16 looking slightly terrified as they tackled cycling, swimming, archery, canoeing and other events clearly out of their comfort zone – spurred on by perky commentary from Gabby Logan, Iwan Thomas and Denise Lewis, and the likes of Rebecca Adlington turning up to offer encouragement.

Mo Farah might be a world champion runner but he didn’t find kayaking so easy (Picture: BBC)

And clips from the original series (notably of former judo champion turned Superstars ace Brian Jacks showing off his gym skills) were thrown in to keep nostalgia fans happy.

Granted, this was sporadically entertaining in much the same way as its 70s predecessor (watching Farah prove adept at archery in one round while tumbling out of a kayak mere minutes later was oddly surreal), while some of the athletes proved to be better all-rounders than others.

But coming off the back of a summer of sport which saw these contenders soaking up the adulation of thousands in the packed, atmospheric Olympic venues, it was a bit of a comedown seeing them watched by a mere handful of spectators as they took to the track in front of grey skies and a rain-drenched camera.

As good-natured and upbeat as it was, it was hard to escape the feeling that we were watching some kind of amateur village sports day, albeit one with familiar faces and serious sporting prowess.